It is a well-known fact that the better one lives, the higher one's living standards, the more suicides there are. Such that in extremely poor countries, suicide does not exist; instead these impoverished people die in civil wars and wide-spread famine. So it is with no surprise that this film in question is Swedish, dealing as it does in such a delicate theme as suicide.
Thomas sets out to visit and say good-bye to those around him - his mother, his wife, her lover, his young son, his sister, his lover........only to find his problems - never very clearly defined - are no worse than theirs.
Cleverly filmed, more than 80% of the film is made while he is driving his car, day and night, around Stockholm and its hinterland, the main characteristic of the film is the splendid characteriological interpretations of the actors and the impact of this rather dramatical denouncement: the message is clear. Where in the supposedly civilised and advanced world we crowd our lives with such benefits as a 'beautiful car', high spending-power, advanced technology, and so on, we are losing something which is far more important: the ability to communicate with those around us, the capacity to feel mutual sentiments, empathy with those persons who participate in our daily lives. All this has gone, ironically, with the arrival of so many different electronic means of contacting people all over the place. The world has gone mad: we cannot communicate with our loved ones, the people dearest to us. We communicate with a phone, a mobile (cellular), TV, radio, satellites, electronic mail and all the advantages of Internet, and other ingenious inventions, but face to face or side by side, those deepest human feelings like saying 'I love you', seem to have become outdated.
This is the case with Thomas; evidently he has lost contact with his mother, his wife, his sister, and even his lover is obviously disconnected from the ravages that Thomas is suffering. The end is horrendously predictable - and orchestrated - with terrifying thunder to aid and abett the outcome, such that there is no surprise. However, it is in the way the film is enacted and carried out that it scores - and scares. Those long hours mostly filmed at the steering-wheel express Thomas' dilemma, however incomprehensible it may be, which forces him into deciding whether to be or not to be.
Thomas sets out to visit and say good-bye to those around him - his mother, his wife, her lover, his young son, his sister, his lover........only to find his problems - never very clearly defined - are no worse than theirs.
Cleverly filmed, more than 80% of the film is made while he is driving his car, day and night, around Stockholm and its hinterland, the main characteristic of the film is the splendid characteriological interpretations of the actors and the impact of this rather dramatical denouncement: the message is clear. Where in the supposedly civilised and advanced world we crowd our lives with such benefits as a 'beautiful car', high spending-power, advanced technology, and so on, we are losing something which is far more important: the ability to communicate with those around us, the capacity to feel mutual sentiments, empathy with those persons who participate in our daily lives. All this has gone, ironically, with the arrival of so many different electronic means of contacting people all over the place. The world has gone mad: we cannot communicate with our loved ones, the people dearest to us. We communicate with a phone, a mobile (cellular), TV, radio, satellites, electronic mail and all the advantages of Internet, and other ingenious inventions, but face to face or side by side, those deepest human feelings like saying 'I love you', seem to have become outdated.
This is the case with Thomas; evidently he has lost contact with his mother, his wife, his sister, and even his lover is obviously disconnected from the ravages that Thomas is suffering. The end is horrendously predictable - and orchestrated - with terrifying thunder to aid and abett the outcome, such that there is no surprise. However, it is in the way the film is enacted and carried out that it scores - and scares. Those long hours mostly filmed at the steering-wheel express Thomas' dilemma, however incomprehensible it may be, which forces him into deciding whether to be or not to be.